ABSTRACT
Unprecedented public debates about intelligence governance following the revelations of Edward Snowden have not changed the fact that all major democracies allow their intelligence agencies to intercept communications data in enormous quantities. Many people question the efficiency of such bulk surveillance methods and their compatibility with fundamental rights. Others worry about their effect on the social fabric of democratic societies. Yet, since courts tend to grant broad leeway to national governments to implement bulk surveillance, the practice is here to stay. It now requires the hard work of taking the lessons about ineffective oversight and applying better practices through the slow and steady channels of democratic institutions. This chapter is based on a report, published by the Heinrich Böll Foundation and Stiftung Neue Verantwortung (Wetzling and Vieth 2018), that features a wide range of good practice recommendations for better intelligence governance collected from different national surveillance regimes. It shows that legal safeguards and oversight innovations can—and should—be applied along the entire cycle of bulk surveillance to realize effective end-to-end oversight.
